Ohud Aldamaeen
ABSTRACT
Data privacy and security preservation are essential issues in the public sector and, particularly, in the health and medical sectors. Patients often lose their data and medical history if they must move between hospitals. In these cases, other health care providers must repeat some procedures, such as analyses and x-rays. An approach that focuses on securely managing and sharing patient health records is thus required. As traditional centralised systems in hospitals do not meet the requirements for such an approach, this calls for the implementation of a secure structure that is capable of protecting patient data. One potential solution is the use of decentralised personal health records in a system that would allow the patient to own, manage and access their own data. This can be achieved by using the type of blockchain technology that would permit patients to identify shareable information and grant or prevent providers and other entities from accessing their data. Utilising the methodology of design science, this research will propose a solution for personal health records management by identifying the necessary requirements, and advantages and disadvantages of such a system. The study will propose a solution that will allow the patients to own, control, and benefit from their data.
- M. C. Domenech, E. Comunello, and M. S. Wangham, “Identity management in e-Health: A case study of web of things application using OpenID connect,” 2014 IEEE 16th Int. Conf. e-Health Networking, Appl. Serv. Heal. 2014, pp. 219–224, 2014, doi: 10.1109/HealthCom.2014.7001844.Google Scholar
Cross Ref
- R. Z. Arndt, “How third parties harvest health data from providers, payers and pharmacies,” Modern Healthcare, 2018. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cin20&AN=129027739&site=ehost-live&scope=site.Google Scholar
- S. Thielman, “Your private medical data is for sale – and it's driving a business worth billions ,” The Guardian, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/10/medical-data-multibillion-dollar-business-report-warns.Google Scholar
- A. H. Mayer, C. A. da Costa, and R. da R. Righi, “Electronic health records in a Blockchain: A systematic review,” Health Informatics J., vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 1273–1288, 2020, doi: 10.1177/1460458219866350.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Y. S. Hau, J. M. Lee, J. Park, and M. C. Chang, “Attitudes toward blockchain technology in managing medical information: Survey study,” J. Med. Internet Res., vol. 21, no. 12, pp. 1–7, 2019, doi: 10.2196/15870.Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. Mikula and R. H. Jacobsen, “Identity and access management with blockchain in electronic healthcare records,” Proc. - 21st Euromicro Conf. Digit. Syst. Des. DSD 2018, pp. 699–706, 2018, doi: 10.1109/DSD.2018.00008.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Houtan, A. S. Hafid, and D. Makrakis, “A Survey on Blockchain-Based Self-Sovereign Patient Identity in Healthcare,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 90478–90494, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2994090.Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. Heart, O. Ben-Assuli, and I. Shabtai, “A review of PHR, EMR and EHR integration: A more personalized healthcare and public health policy,” Heal. Policy Technol., vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 20–25, 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2016.08.002.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Y. Zhuang, L. R. Sheets, Y. W. Chen, Z. Y. Shae, J. J. P. Tsai, and C. R. Shyu, “A patient-centric health information exchange framework using blockchain technology,” IEEE J. Biomed. Heal. Informatics, vol. 24, no. 8, pp. 2169–2176, 2020, doi: 10.1109/JBHI.2020.2993072.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Dubovitskaya , “ACTION-EHR: Patient-centric blockchain-based electronic health record data management for cancer care,” J. Med. Internet Res., vol. 22, no. 8, 2020, doi: 10.2196/13598.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Faber, G. C. Michelet, N. Weidmann, R. R. Mukkamala, and R. Vatrapu, “BPDIMS:A Blockchain-based Personal Data and Identity Management System,” Proc. 52nd Hawaii Int. Conf. Syst. Sci., vol. 6, pp. 6855–6864, 2019, doi: 10.24251/hicss.2019.821.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Albahli, R. U. Khan, and A. M. Qamar, “A blockchain-based architecture for smart healthcare system: A case study of Saudi Arabia,” Adv. Sci. Technol. Eng. Syst., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 40–47, 2020, doi: 10.25046/aj050106.Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. Dey, S. Jaiswal, S. Sunderkrishnan, and N. Katre, “HealthSense: A medical use case of Internet of Things and blockchain,” Proc. Int. Conf. Intell. Sustain. Syst. ICISS 2017, no. Iciss, pp. 486–491, 2018, doi: 10.1109/ISS1.2017.8389459.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Zaabar, O. Cheikhrouhou, F. Jamil, M. Ammi, and M. Abid, “HealthBlock: A secure blockchain-based healthcare data management system,” Comput. Networks, vol. 200, no. August, p. 108500, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2021.108500.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. Li, M. Dong, J. Li, G. Xu, X. Chen, and K. Ota, “Healthchain: Secure EMRs Management and Trading in Distributed Healthcare Service System,” IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 8, no. 9, pp. 7192–7202, 2020, doi: 10.1109/JIOT.2020.3038721.Google ScholarCross Ref
- X. Tang, C. Guo, K.-K. R. Choo, Y. Liu, and L. Li, “A secure and trustworthy medical record sharing scheme based on searchable encryption and blockchain,” Comput. Networks, vol. 200, p. 108540, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2021.108540.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Toshniwal, P. Podili, R. J. Reddy, and K. Kataoka, “PACEX: PAtient-Centric EMR eXchange in Healthcare Systems using Blockchain,” 2019 IEEE 10th Annu. Inf. Technol. Electron. Mob. Commun. Conf. IEMCON 2019, pp. 954–960, 2019, doi: 10.1109/IEMCON.2019.8936258.Google ScholarCross Ref
- [ G. Leeming, J. Cunningham, and J. Ainsworth, “A Ledger of Me: Personalizing Healthcare Using Blockchain Technology,” Front. Med., vol. 6, no. July, pp. 1–10, 2019, doi: 10.3389/fmed.2019.00171.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. H. Beinke, C. Fitte, and F. Teuteberg, “Towards a stakeholder-oriented blockchain-based architecture for electronic health records: Design science research study,” J. Med. Internet Res., vol. 21, no. 10, 2019, doi: 10.2196/13585.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Khatoon, “A blockchain-based smart contract system for healthcare management,” Electron., vol. 9, no. 1, 2020, doi: 10.3390/electronics9010094.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Y. Lim , “Blockchain technology the identity management and authentication service disruptor: A survey,” Int. J. Adv. Sci. Eng. Inf. Technol., vol. 8, no. 4–2, pp. 1735–1745, 2018, doi: 10.18517/ijaseit.8.4-2.6838.Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. T. Kuo, H. Zavaleta Rojas, and L. Ohno-Machado, “Comparison of blockchain platforms: A systematic review and healthcare examples,” J. Am. Med. Informatics Assoc., vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 462–478, 2019, doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocy185.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Alketbi, Q. Nasir, and M. Abu Talib, “Novel blockchain reference model for government services: Dubai government case study,” Int. J. Syst. Assur. Eng. Manag., vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1170–1191, 2020, doi: 10.1007/s13198-020-00971-2.Google ScholarCross Ref
- E. Androulaki , “Hyperledger Fabric: A Distributed Operating System for Permissioned Blockchains,” Proc. 13th EuroSys Conf. EuroSys 2018, vol. 2018-Janua, 2018, doi: 10.1145/3190508.3190538.Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. Uddin , “Hyperledger fabric blockchain: Secure and efficient solution for electronic health records,” Comput. Mater. Contin., vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 2377–2397, 2021, doi: 10.32604/cmc.2021.015354.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Y. A. Alsahafi and B. V. Gay, “An overview of electronic personal health records,” Heal. Policy Technol., vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 427–432, 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2018.10.004.Google ScholarCross Ref
- P. Meier, J. H. Beinke, C. Fitte, J. Schulte to Brinke, and F. Teuteberg, “Generating design knowledge for blockchain-based access control to personal health records,” Inf. Syst. E-bus. Manag., vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 13–41, 2021, doi: 10.1007/s10257-020-00476-2.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Y. Cao, Y. Sun, and J. Min, “Hybrid blockchain–based privacy-preserving electronic medical records sharing scheme across medical information control system,” Meas. Control (United Kingdom), vol. 53, no. 7–8, pp. 1286–1299, 2020, doi: 10.1177/0020294020926636.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Hevner and S. Chatterjee, Design Research in Information Systems, vol. 22. Boston, MA: Springer US, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. J. Wieringa, Design Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2014.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Hyperledger Project, “Fabric whitepaper,” p. 2, 2020, [Online]. Available: https://www.hyperledger.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/hyperledger_fabric_whitepaper.pdf.Google Scholar
- P. Johannesson and E. Perjons, An Introduction to Design Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021.Google ScholarCross Ref
- P. Checkland and J. Poulter, “Soft Systems Methodology,” in Systems Approaches to Making Change: A Practical Guide, London: Springer London, 2020, pp. 201–253.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. Fan, S. Ghaemi, H. Khazaei, and P. Musilek, “Performance Evaluation of Blockchain Systems: A Systematic Survey,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, no. June, pp. 126927–126950, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3006078.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Hyperledger Caliper, “Caliper,” Hyprtledger, 2018. https://www.hyperledger.org/blog/2018/03/19/measuring-blockchain-performance-with-hyperledger-caliper.Google Scholar
Recommendations
Designing Patient-Centered Personal Health Records (PHRs): Health Care Professionals' Perspective on Patient-Generated Data
Currently, patients not only want access to various medical records their health care providers keep about them, but they also are willing to become active participants in managing their own health information and the health information of the ones they ...
Personal Health Records: New Means to Safely Handle Health Data?
Personal health records offer a way to manage health data while lessening healthcare costs, improving patient data quality, and fostering healthcare efficiency, but privacy and security issues are particularly important considerations for PHR designers.
...Privacy policies of personal health records: an evaluation of their effectiveness in protecting patient information
IHI '10: Proceedings of the 1st ACM International Health Informatics SymposiumIn recent years, there has been growing demand by patients for access to their own health information via tools like Personal Health Records [1]. The Markle Foundation [2] defines the Personal Health Record (PHR) as an electronic application through ...
Comments